Maintenance of the water drainage network in a city or village is mainly based on long term plans which define when elements of the water drainage network must be replaced or maintained. If central elements in the water drainage network fail, this is often automatically detected by means of sensors that continuously sense the operation of the central elements and such failures are often prevented by regular maintenance that is defined in the (long term) maintenance plans. However, the water drainage network has also a lot of decentralized elements.
Published Chinese patent application CN104727423A describes a system for controlling the operation of controllable elements of a water drainage network, such as pumps, valves or even controllable weirs. The system tries to control those elements as best as possible such that water is drained away without causing any problems. The system may also use information obtained from traffic cameras. Although this system tries to prevent problems with the water drainage in a city by controlling controllable elements of the water drainage network, the system is not meant for and is not able to detect whether some elements, such as passive decentralized elements, are not operating according to expectations.